Do You Know  Why Union Leaders Have Resorted to Protests Day on 21st May and Planning Two Days Strike in July, 2012 ?

by

Danendra Jain dkjain49709@gmail.com

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) has decided to observe May 21 as All India Protest Day and strike for two days in the month of July this year.    May I ask why? 

UFBU has called strike and protest day primarily against unilateral directions on human resource issues. Hitherto union leaders where working in nexus with each other. They were working together to reject good officers and select bad officers in Promotion processes by resorting the tools of Interview where members of Interview panel could award 0 to 25 marks without looking into any reality of staff appearing for promotion. If union leader recommended top bosses for promotion of any officer he could get 25 marks in Interview and on the contrary any officer was to be rejected, the number given in Interview used to be below 5. After all what is the record of Interview?

Normally no questions are asked when an officer is to be promoted and when officer has support of some prominent union leaders or some top bank officials. On the other hand if a meritorious officer (who is not flatterer) has to be rejected in promotion process, members of Interview panel will be unanimous in asking toughest and irrelevant questions.

After all there is nothing to be judged about an officer in Interview appearing for promotion because he has already worked in the bank for five to 35 years. Ability and capability of an officer cannot be judged in 2 to 3 minutes of interview when the management could not judge him performance of several years.

During last six months or so , Ministry of Finance have issued some guidelines to bring about certain improvement in quality of bank officers, to give value to actual performers, to minimize misuse of powers by top officials, to stop whimsical transfers ,to make promotion policy more transparent and effective  and for strengthening recovery process to bring down NPA and for improving  profitability.

It is a matter of pleasure that Element of transparency and value to good performers have been given some importance through guidelines issued during last six months from Ministry of Finance.Though it is a drop of Amrit in the ocean of Poison.

Though guidelines on Human resource issues dictated by MOF are not absolutely perfect, ideal and justified, MOF has at least thought and awakened from deep slumber for bringing about reformation in bank HRD policies which were hitherto totally whimsical and arbitrary and giving large scope for manipulation and fraud with good performers .

It is pity that the union leaders who were supposed to protect the interest of working class started exploiting working class by using the powers of top bank officials . I salute to officials of MOF that they have started playing the role which union leaders were to play.

Unfortunately union leaders during the course of time became puppet in the hands of top corrupt officials and started selling transfers and promotions .Now their self interest has been adversely affected to some extent by new dictate of MOF on HR issues. This is why they have been provoked by top ranked officials to resort to strike and protest the government intervention on HR issues.

I am unable to understand why union leaders are so much perturbed when MOF is trying to make polices transparent and justifiable.I am unable to visualize how mountain has fallen on so called union leaders by  issuance of a few guideline by MOF on HR issues who are after all owner of Public sector banks.

I would like to request so called protectors and so called union leaders  to specify issues which are against the common interest of bank employees and which have forced them to call for Protest Day or for Strike.

MOF has dictated that all transfers and promotions should be completed by the end of June so that family of officer is not disturbed and education of children of staff is not adversely affected. MOF has said that whimsical transfer of officer from one corner to other after June should be approved by Board of Directors so that any officer is not whimsically transferred to remote places by corrupt bosses on the plea of exigencies of work.

If bank feel that any officer is really of huge importance the transfer decision may be approved by Board. Hitherto union leaders used to recommend transfer of an officer from one corner to other only because officers were not blind supporter of union leaders and the officer was not earning bribe to share with bosses.

Union Leaders never resorted to strike or protest when good performers but probable whistle blowers were transferred by corrupt bosses from a place to most critical place. This is because top officers of management always used to accomplish their evil task taking union leaders into confidence.

Union leaders never protested unjustified transfer of an officer to critical place, unjustified rejection of an officer in promotion process and unjustified promotion to corrupt officers who were flatterer to union leaders and top bosses.

They never protested when bank management resorted to violation of transfer policies framed by them to punish an officer who did not blindly sanction a loan proposal to please his boss.

They never protested when corrupt officers after taking huge money in bribe sanction huge loan and added to volume of bad assets.

They never raised questions when due to corrupt officers, bad assets increased, profit came down and as a result wage revision was much below the expectation and much below the wage structure prevailing in other central government offices.

Union leaders should therefore make it clear why they are so much unhappy on certain changes on HR issues suggested by MOF and what better suggestion they like to put forward in the common interest of working class.

At the same MOF should try to ascertain whether the union leaders are supported by officers’ class blindly or on merit basis. Bank employees are like sheep and they follow blindly what their leaders dictate to maintain unity.

Is such blind unity beneficial for the bank, for workers and for the country?

Unity should not be used to create terror and should not be used to carry out terror attack as Naxal and foreign based terrorists are from time to time doing to prove the world that they are super power.

Union leaders, Bank management and MOF should all try to collect the opinion of ground level workers and they decide the best course of action on HR issues.

I urge all bank employees to ponder over the dictates of union leaders and that of MOF and then decide who is wrong and what is better in their common interest. They must stop using strike as a tool to shut the mouth of those who are trying to stop malpractices prevailing in banks and who are making some efforts to make the policies more honest, effective and transparent. Delegation of powers to Indian more often than not results in misuse of power.

Mere issuance of circulars that officer will not build illegal and undesirable pressure on members of Interview Board or recruitment board is not going to serve any purpose. Mere hanging of banners like “Vigilance Observance Week” or that of “Customer Service Day” or ‘Honesty is our tool to grow” etc are not going to stop corrupt practices.

Until stern actions are taken against really corrupt officers, government cannot send good message to field functionaries.

What they preach they have to practice in toto. Policies, circulars, laws, rules all are framed keeping in ideals but unfortunately they are seldom adhered to honestly by all. A few corrupt officers vitiate the entire environment and help in growing of bad culture.

A bad mango can spoil hundred good mangoes kept in a basket but hundred good mangoes cannot convert a bad into good.

Strike is weapon given to all in democratic system to demand justice and to protest injustice. If it is used for bad purpose it can spoil the future of not only bank or the country but the very future of Democracy